That's a really weird thing to say, you know? Epic follows a derivative of semver, which means that so long as the 5 is still a 5, upgrading to new releases will have minimal impact on the majority of game projects. UE4 ended at 4.27, which is twenty seven different updates to UE4 that you probably never heard about developers upgrading to.
The shortest timeframe between major versions of unreal engine was four years, with the changeover from UE1 to UE2 in 2002 after UE1's initial versions in '98. Every major version since then has been longer, with UE3 taking five years to develop and UE4 taking seven. UE4 came out in 2014, and enjoyed eight years of development prior to the release of UE5 in 2022, the longest thus far. That eight year period is a major contributor to this ongoing perspective about UE5, because a lot of people are literally too young to remember the last time it happened to developers. (Not to mention the last time it happened to developers was when it was purely a professional tool that was inaccessible to indie devs, so the changeover was industry-internal)
Going by that pattern, UE6 will happen sometime around 2030. If this game is still in development seven years from now, changing to a new version of unreal engine would be the least of their worries.
This game's developers looked into UE5 last year, while UE4 was still officially supported, and began the changeover process in the background while continuing to offer new content on UE4 in the interim. They probably looked into 5.0 too, but they only began the changeover with 5.1 after some significant issues with 5.0 had been resolved. After a while of that they asked the subscribers (the people actually giving them paychecks) about continuing the slow background development on UE5, or putting it at the forefront in order to get it out the door faster. The overwhelming vote was in favor of pushing UE5 faster, which led to where we are.
And it's not like they have a choice on the matter at this point. You're going to see a lot more actively in development projects switching from UE4 to UE5 in the near future, because lack of official support for UE4 means a lot more than no bugfixing from epic. It means the community of developers who make assets and tools for UE4 are moving on and stopping support for the UE4 versions of their projects. It also means the community of developers and players with tons of knowledge about how to use UE4 is fracturing and much of that knowledge is moving on to UE5. Anyone who stays on UE4 while actively developing a game is acknowleding that they are going to be on their own as a developer, more so as time goes on and existing tutorials and guides start vanishing due to pages and accounts going offline.
I do understand that it's necessary to change to the newest version, but it's not weird in any way since people are probably supporting the Game financially, too (Patreon etc.) and I think it would be nice to see a roughly outlined (so, not legally binding or anything) timeline, that can be laid-out and followed with a margin of error, that is natural for unexpected Events to happen along the line - and adjusted accordingly when these "unexpected events" happen, of course. That's just how everything in Life works, isn't it?
And since it's not an exceptionally big team either, I think the switch from one version to the next of the same platform obviously means some things can be built upon incrementally, but others need to be entirely re-made.
Even though I do not know the exact extent of either (Transparency of the Development Process could mend this naturally, but might deter some people as much as it builds trust in others, so that is another factor, that cannot be predicted with certainty because it depends on the individual human being).
So, I wonder if anyone knows for sure what the ease and challenges are from switching to the next version - how much of the development so far can be ported-over, for example, and how much needs to be re-done/-made/-created from scratch?
Because that could give better impression and estimation of it without revealing any "corporate secrets", i.m.h.o.
But communication is the key again to trust in any project in development - and, as in everything, there's always a risk involved of not estimating the audience correctly and having it lose faith and move away their support as a consequence.
I hope this will not happen with Carnal Instinct and because I care, I have brought this up in the hopes of "inspiring" some more Transparency and maybe better communication. Because "just the others don't do it" seems like a bad idea, considering the conditions many Gaming Companies "hold" their Coders in so far (which I hope will also get unionized, btw., so they can have Lives again and a living wage under far more humane circumstances - because coding is work like any other one. And valuable one at that...since we all benefit from the outcomes, after all).
Cheers and hope this clarifies my point a little better...I do wish the Game to succeed after all. But, without
enough information in communicating during the Development Process, there's a risk of supporters losing faith. And I wish with all my heart, that this will be addressed and mitigated smartly and without deception like some scam-projects have done in the past, as we all know.
So, transparent communication nurtures trust - sketchy catch phrases don't. That's why I wish to have some rough outlines with the awareness and reminder of margins of error in the communication of the state of the development. Estimations are even alright, too. But it shouldn't put developers and especially the creative departments under distress either, since that is highly detrimental to any kind of Creative Process, too, I am well-aware. And that's the balancing act of every leaders in charge of every project everywhere on the Planet, i.m.h.o.
